amazing, fun & stunning scenery

After 9 months of volunteering and developing our skills in sport in preparation, the day finally came for our Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition.

Joined by some of our teachers, we took a coach to the Yorkshire Dales, where we met our group instructor in the car park, who gave us our tents to carry, and went through our kit to make sure that we were fully equipped for our walk.

Then we set off: each group was tasked with following a route to get from the car park to our campsite. The walk was around 14km, and we were in luck because it hadn’t rained too much despite the forecast!

We walked to 4 checkpoints where we could have a break and refill our water bottles. The route on the first day wasn’t too hard, and we got to go past fields full of sheep and lots of farm animals. However, along the route we encountered a hill that was very marshy and boggy, and by the end of it everyone had shoes soaked with mud.

We also met teachers along the way who were speeding along the route - with their tiny light bags, much to our jealousy!

The final stretch towards camp was amazing - it was downhill, and we passed through long stretches of fields full of beautiful flowers.

Finally, we reached camp. Surprisingly, not many groups had got lost, and almost everyone got to camp at a similar time. No matter how tired all of us were, we still had a long list of jobs. Firstly, setting up our tent, then cooking our food, and then cleaning up. After all that we could relax and do nothing before going to bed.

In the morning, we got up and had a lot to do before going on our hike. Packing up the tent, making breakfast, cleaning up our litter and sorting out all our kit. Then each group set off on their hike which was a circular 12km walk where some groups went clockwise and  some anticlockwise.

At the beginning it was fun: we walked past fields and up hills that were not too steep (thankfully). There were lots of small gates from field to field that you had to squeeze through, or sometimes we had to climb the fence. At about halfway, we had to go up a hill that was clustered with cows. Looking at cows, they seem cute, but we had heard from other groups they had been chased by them, so it took a long time for us to get through the fields, because we had to go round them and do it carefully so as not to disturb them. Although it was also amusing to see how scared my friends were of the cows!

After getting through the field, we made it to our next checkpoint where we ate lunch. From there, we only had an hour and a half left. This was the hardest part as it had begun to rain heavily, and we had to climb up a huge hill following a path that was made of slippery stones which you could easily slip on. The climb was very difficult, especially because everyone was tired, but we eventually reached the top, and if you looked down, everything just looked like tiny specks.

It was an amazing feeling getting to the top, and we now only had a short stretch left, where we would go around the hill for a while, then a straight path all the way down to the car park where we would meet our parents. This still had its difficulties because we were soaked through, and the path down was also made of slippery rocks. We all kept slipping down but we kept going, and we made it!

Finally, we had finished our D of E. Despite all its difficulties, we still had a lot of fun and the sights were stunning!

Report and photographs by Aizah 10U